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Toronto city workers offer to accept three-year pay freeze

CUPE’s 6,000 outside workers put forward a huge concession as the city makes moves toward a February lockout.

Mark Ferguson, president of CUPE Local 416, announces in the lobby of City Hall on Friday that his members are willing to take a three-year wage freeze to get a new contract with the city. On Thursday, the city asked a provincial mediator to declare talks with the 6,000 "outside" workers at an impasse, a move that could start the clock ticking toward a February lockout or strike. (DAVID RIDER / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

The City of Toronto’s 6,000 “outside” workers are offering to freeze their wages for three years as, sources say, the Ford administration ponders how to force a strike if they refuse to surrender job security.

“We are ready to sign a wage freeze tomorrow in an agreement that continues the current terms and conditions of our current collective agreement,” Mark Ferguson, president of CUPE Local 416, told reporters at City Hall on Friday.

“If (city negotiators) get back to the table, we could have a deal by the end of the day.”

Ferguson said a wage freeze rather than minor pay hikes would save the city $8.5 million a year that could be used to save city pools and other services now on the budget chopping block.

That last contract was reached in 2009 after a bitter 40-day strike. It gave unionized city workers a 1.75 per cent raise in the first year, 2 per cent in the second and 2.25 per cent in 2011. It expired Jan. 1.

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Councillor Doug Holyday, chair of the employee and labour relations committee, welcomed Ferguson’s offer but said he should have made it at the negotiating table before talks broke down this week.

“There’s more than just wages and benefits that are the problem here,” Holyday said. “There are things in that contract that make us an inefficient operation, and we’re trying to make it efficient for taxpayers.”

Mayor Rob Ford has said he would like to reduce the city’s 50,000-strong workforce by roughly 7,000. He is determined to kill a clause forcing the city to find another job for permanent employees made redundant by contracting-out or technology.

On Thursday, city negotiators formally asked a provincial mediator to declare talks at an impasse. The city expects the labour ministry to issue a report affirming the deadlock Monday or Tuesday. A city lockout, or union strike, would become legal 17 days later, in early February.

Also possible then is the employer arbitrarily changing the terms and conditions of work, something sources say the administration is considering in a bid to avoid the stigma of a lockout.

The administration could, for example, decree that only workers with 20 years or more service have job security. The trick, said one source, would be to find the “sweet spot” with changes viewed as reasonable by the public but untenable to the union, forcing it to compromise or strike.

The administration also thinks it can wring the most concessions out of the union by getting talks to a possible lockout or strike stage in winter, when a work stoppage wouldn’t see stinky garbage filling garages.

Contracts for about 32,000 City of Toronto workers in four union locals expired New Year’s Day. Negotiations with CUPE Local 79, representing 23,000 indoor workers, are continuing with the help of another provincial mediator.

Talks are expected to start soon with the 2,300-member Toronto Public Library Workers Union.

Also on Friday, it was announced that the Ontario Labour Board rejected the city’s bid to have 100 per cent of paramedics remain on the job in case of a lockout or strike.

The mediator, after weighing increased demand on paramedic services and the union’s right to withdraw services during a disruption, set the mandated staffing level at 85 per cent in case of a stoppage.

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